The present invention relates generally to wearing apparel such as night gowns or lounging gowns and relates more specifically to a garment suitable for use by nursing mothers either in a hospital or at home.
Gowns for hospital patients should meet certain criteria that are necessitated by the hospital environment. Since many patients have limited mobility, the gowns must be easy to put on. Buttons, snaps, and other fasteners are not normally used on hospital gowns as they may fall off or effect the quality of X-ray photographs. Patient comfort is a primary concern as well as cost and durability.
A conventional type of hospital gown has a full length opening at the rear which is closed by a closure tie at the neck. With this type of gown, it is easy to clothe even an invalid patient since the gown need not be stepped into nor put on over the patient's head. The wide sleeves of this type of gown allow access to the patient's arm. This type of gown is comfortable for the patient since it is loose fitting and covers the patient's torso and upper arms to insulate from drafts and cold air.
Such conventional hospital gowns, however, are quite awkward for mothers to use in the hospital when breast feeding their babies. The major difficulty with the gown is that a patient can not easily expose a breast for feeding. Removal or reversal of the gown is unsuitable because a nurse is needed to assist the patient by removing any intravenous tubing and untying the closure tie. This is undesireable because it wastes valuable professional time, and the patient's body is exposed to the view of others, thus invading her privacy. Alternative methods of breast access involving untying the gown and pulling it down or pulling it up or around also needlessly expose the patient's body.
Hospital gowns have existed in the prior art that are releaseably joined at the shoulder seam and permit a front panel to be dropped for breast access. Gowns of this type were described in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,489,046 issued Apr. 1, 1924 to H. F. T. Thompson; 2,701,364 issued Feb. 8, 1955 to C. B. Palm; 3,464,063 issued Sept. 2, 1969 to H. J. Hoegerman; and 3,490,072 issued Jan. 20, 1970 to R. O. Keltner. Mechanical fasteners were used at the shoulder seam to fasten the front panels of all of the gowns described in the above patents with the exception of Keltner which used adhesive strips. All of these gowns suffered from the disadvantage that the patient's entire breast and shoulder would necessarily be exposed during breast feeding. Additionally, the Hoegerman and the Keltner gowns were sleeveless which would not sufficiently cover the patient and, thus, would not be suitable for hospital wear.
Hospital and nursing gowns have existed that have openings covered by flaps to permit access to the breast area. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 778,014 issued Dec. 20, 1904 to R. T. Coyle; and 2,124,366 issued July 19, 1938 to A. F. de Lasarte. One common disadvantage of the Coyle and de Lasarte gowns is that they both used buttons to fasten their flaps in a closed position. Additional disadvantages were that the Coyle gown restricted breast access through a narrow opening, and that the de Lasarte gown was of two piece construction including a cape in addition to a sleeveless gown. As a result, these gowns were impractical for use in hospitals.
Hospital gowns and the like have existed that have flaps covering the breast area but without fasteners to retain the flaps. Examples of this type of gown construction may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,319,089 issued May 11, 1943 to L. Severance and 3,751,730 issued Aug. 14, 1973 to S. Zamist. The Severance gown included a inner front panel of fabric with cut-outs for access to the breast area plus an outer front panel, joined to the inner front panel above and below the breasts, to cover the cut-outs and the breasts. To gain access to the breast, the outer panel was moved to the center, exposing the cut-out area in the inner panel. Disadvantages to the Severance gown included restricted access to the breasts due to the joining of the inner and outer panels, and overall construction complexity. The Zamist gown was a wrap-around toga with cut-outs at the breast area with a flap hanging down over the cut-outs. Since the Zamist gown was sleeveless, it was not suitable for hospital useage.
Additional types of hospital gowns without fasteners are known to exist in the prior art, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,155,984 issued Nov. 10, 1964 to D. L. Derrick and 3,160,891 issued Dec. 15, 1964 to G. E. MacDonald. Both the Derrick and the MacDonald gowns were intended to be examination gowns to be worn temporarily rather than as a general patient gown. Their sleeveless construction and lack of access to the breast area made them unsuitable as hospital gowns for nursing mothers.
In summary, the prior art discloses several hospital gowns for nursing mothers, none of which are optimal from the criteria of patient comfort, breast access with a minimum of exposure, ease of ingress, and lack of fasteners.